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On Sunday after we were able to be with the nine men of the Lwanga house to shop for the clothes they lost in the fire, several of them wanted me to make sure I told you thank you. In addition to the Little Sisters of St. Francis of Assisi we are their family. For some we are all the family they have.

As we were checking out, in almost every instance they said, thank you. But not in a simple way. They each used the word, “please.”

“Please tell the Church thank you.” “Please bless the Church for doing this. Thank you.” “Please let them know thank you from me.”

Please. It is such a sincere word flowing from sincere hearts overwhelmed with gratitude.

After they said this to me, I responded, “I will. Let these clothes remind you that your hurt is not lost on our God. And as His family you are not lost on us. If we all belong to God then we all belong to one another.”

I talked to Sister Agnes yesterday. She told me about all the work they have to do to get the business-side of the home back in order. She visited one of the Day Centers, a place where the residents go to develop life-skills, to request copies of files. When the Executive Director asked why Sister reminded her of the fire. Jokingly the Executive Director said, “What fire? This week they’ve come struttin’ in with their new clothes and shoes with big smiles on their faces like nothing ever happened. You got them new clothes so quickly it’s almost like they haven’t lost a thing.” After the phone call Sister Agnes sent me this text:

“I am so very happy and very grateful to the whole church for coming forth with first class speedy support.”

Our quick response to this tragedy to take them shopping was about more than replacing lost clothes. It was about pushing back against the trauma ( called shock trauma) caused by the fire before it could settle in to on-going trauma and anxiety resulting in a form of cumulative trauma that can do greater damage to their brains. In other words, our quick and swift response to be present with them and shop for new clothes was more than a shopping-event or service-event. It was a healing-event. And that’s exactly why we needed to respond with urgency. We needed to charge the darkness and rush into the suffering so the reign of God and healing presence of Christ could break into their lives in a tangible way. He was already at work in it. We just needed to join him there.

WCC fam, thank you. Thank you for being a light in dark places as you tangibly bear witness to the presence of Christ in the broken places of hurting lives. And please, praise and thank God for his provision.

We have a long road to travel together but I trust our Lord will lead the way.

Go into the rest of your week knowing that where Christ is present healing is possible. You’ve got this, and God’s got you.

We are excited about VBS this year. Watch the video below and you’ll see why. It will be great to come together and talk about three of the greatest words in the vocabulary of our faith: love, hope and grace. Who couldn’t use a little more love, hope and grace?

Forward this on to your friends because our VBS isn’t just for kids this year. It’s VBS for everybody!

Take a look at the prophets. They often stood in public squares and crowded streets and shared God’s message to his people as poet-preachers, storytellers and singers. Other times they enacted God’s word in a kind of “street theater,” performing signs and visions with their bodies, using ordinary objects as props and ordinary places as their stage.

Artist, Michael Buesking “Ezekiel Laying Siege to Jerusalem”

Remember when Isaiah was commanded to walk naked and barefoot for three years to communicate how the king of Assyria will “lead away the Egyptians as captives and the Ethiopians as exiles, both the young and the old, naked and barefoot, with buttocks uncovered, to the shame of Egypt” (Isa. 20:2-4)? Jeremiah was commanded to bury his newly purchased underwear in a rocky place at the Euphrates and return to dig up his now ruined underwear several days later to symbolize the ruined pride of Judah and Jerusalem (Jer. 13). Then there is Ezekiel and his many award worthy performances. One time he ate a scroll (no dipping sauce) to symbolize God’s word being put in his mouth and then bound himself with ropes inside his house to symbolize that he may speak to the people only when God wants him to speak (Ezek. 3). Another time he dramatized the fall of Jerusalem with a multi-day street theatrical performance playing war with bricks and other props followed by many weeks of lying down in the street using other props to communicate God’s word, including his own hair, fecal matter and bread (Ezek. 4-5).

You may already know this, but just over one-third of the Bible is poetry. Perhaps God feels it’s necessary to communicate His vision of life to us with language structured differently from ordinary prose. Sometimes it takes language in the form of story, poetry or embodied performance to expand the imagination in order to see new possibilities.

Dramatic changes in one’s way of life often necessitates a dramatic change one’s a way of thinking. It requires an entirely different imagination. God’s people lacked imagination.

As society grew more committed to empire politics and violence, the Jews traded in story-driven covenant loyalty for data-driven logic weighed down in politically spun facts and sorted out feelings through political logic. They could not imagine a society different from that of the other nations. They could not imagine how commerce could be fair and good for all. They could not imagine equitable economic practices capable of promoting human flourishing. They could not imagine a society without a permanent underclass, where the widow, the poor, the immigrant and the orphan were valued. Israel forgot her own story, a history that speaks of transformation, liberation, healing, and newness, all coming about in the form of miracles wielded by a God who can do the impossible. As a result they failed to keep their imaginations big enough to envision the kind of life Yahweh offered, a life of truth, goodness and beauty culminating in righteousness, mercy and compassion.

God’s people have always had a lack-of-imagination problem. We still do.

Sometimes sermons communicated in ordinary prose or written on parchment are not enough. Sometimes it takes truth expressed in the form of drama, dance, music, poetry, drawing and sculpting to stir our hearts and open our minds to life-affirming possibilities. Throughout history God as the Creator has embodied his truth and goodness through the creative arts in redemptive ways as his form of protest in a society numb to violence and injustice. The creative arts become redemptive arts when they are embraced as a medium by which God can display the beauty of his love and justice in love-less and unjust societies. He did it through his people and for his people, then. I believe he wants to do it now.

I know we don’t all agree on how the violence and injustices should be handled, but we can all agree that the violence and injustice must be dealt with. In light of the great tradition of the prophets, is it possible that redemptive art can awaken us to a different imagination? Can creativity, beauty and community investment be the means by which the beauty of Christ is displayed? We need to come together to imagine ways we can put hands and feet to our “prayers and thoughts” so that new possibilities will break open in our nation. We know where the Church’s preachers, teachers and evangelists can be found, but where are the artists, poets and prophets?

Let’s come together and ask the hard questions. Let’s wrestle with potential solutions that are capable of bringing the claims of our faith to bear. Let’s imagine ways we can embody our confession and proclamation through practices of self-giving, faithful presence, and life-affirming creativity.

If you will, please allow me to take a couple of minutes of your time. I would really appreciate it.

First, I would like to say thank you. Thank you for being the kind of church that welcomes all people in to God’s gracious hospitality. Yesterday, we had many visit the worship gathering despite having so many of us out of town due with Spring Break. No doubt they came for a variety of reasons. Among them were families who have experienced hurt from God’s people in personal ways. For the first time some of them found the courage to gather with a church and for whatever reason, they chose us. Our hope is that we made them feel welcomed and that God’s Spirit spoke to them in powerful ways.

It reminds me of what Lindsay shared on Facebook yesterday. You may remember that she was recently baptized into Christ and is a new member of our church family. She posted, This Easter, I’m grateful to have found a church that lives out the fact that Jesus’ death and resurrection was for everyone, hard stop. No church is perfect, ours included, but I’m thankful to be a small part of one that errs on the side of acknowledging the inherent, God-given worth and equality of all.”

She is right. Christ is for everyone because there is inherent, God-given worth in all and requires that the same equality shared by the triune God as Father, Son and Spirit be reflected in His people. She is also right when she says we are not perfect. We are far from it, yet God in His grace continues to make Himself known to us, among us and through us. I praise the Lord that we are learning what it means to be faithful in our love for Him and others. Thank you for your willingness to submit to the Lordship of Jesus. You are a beautiful light, WCC. May we press on.

Finally, I want to share that in three weeks we’ll begin a new and exciting conversation on Sundays. It will be quite a change from what we’ve discussed the past three years. During that time most of our Sunday gatherings have led us to re-examine our allegiances and lay down idols so we can pick up the life God offers to us as citizens of His Kingdom. We have set our eyes outward toward joining God in His work of extending His gracious hospitality to others, especially the least, last, left-out and lonely. Now I think it’s time we take a different turn and enter into a new season of approaching life with Christ from a different perspective. Rather than taking such a long look outward–we will still be postured toward an outward view, of course–this series will invite us to take a longer look inward as God’s beloved children. I believe we will be drawn into a deeper reliance on the Spirit of Christ who by God’s grace can liberate each one of us into a life of joy and peace. I hope it will be a breath of fresh air and breathe new life into our church family and city. I am looking forward to it!

Have a grace-filled week. Lord willing, we’ll see you when we get back from San Francisco!

Mary’s song about the God who topples kingdoms and sends the rich away empty points us to the upside down subversive reign of God. We are invited to turn our attention to the poem of Isaiah: a king is coming and his reign of peace and fairness and justice will never end. Now, standing on this side of Advent, our minds shift from Mary’s song and Isaiah’s poem to Jesus’ prayer when he said, “Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”

When you and I pray, “May your kingdom come,” we are saying, “May my kingdom go.” Like Mary I am reminded that God’s promise of the King who would usher in a different kingdom will not allow me to split loyalties. I can wisely use the systems of this world, but never believe in them to save. Only the king of a different kingdom can do that.

Advent proposes that we put our hope in Emmanuel, God with us, whose ever-present Kingship and the eternal life He brings is our well-being. Advent proposes that we put our hope in the Wonderful Counselor who can teach us the way of discerning life in a world of temporary kingdoms and false allegiances. Advent proposes that we put our hope in the Redeemer who joyfully declares that no one is ever beyond redemption. Advent proposes that we put our hope in the Eternal Father who shows us that all people are made in God’s image and that we are loved far more than we can ever imagine. Advent proposes that we put our hope in the Prince of Peace who invites us to become instruments of peace where, when we trade fear, selfishness, and bitterness for hospitality, generosity and forgiveness, we find the meaning of our identity as sons and daughters of God.

~ Fred

“Lord grant me the grace to do one thing at a time today, without rushing or hurrying. Help me to savor the sacred in all I do, be it large or small. By the power of the Holy Spirit, empower me to pause today as I move from one activity to the next. Unclutter my heart, O God, until I am quiet enough to hear you speak out of the silence. Forgive me for running my life without you sometimes. Help me to be still, to surrender to your will, and to rest in your loving arms. Amen.”

Pete Scazzero¹

¹ This quote is taken from the Advent Daily Offices by Rich Villodas (p. 7)

The Christmas story as told by the gospel writers has two sides. One is beautiful. One is broken. Both come together to form a single story that offers us what Fleming Rutledge says is, “an unparalleled opportunity to take a fearless inventory of the darkness in our world and in our hearts, into which the True Light will come.”

The story reminds us that God enters into the darkness and meets us in our messes.

The first Christmas was not celebrated with discounts from merchants and merriment from governments committed to honoring the Christ of Christmas. Yes, there was gold and frankincense and myrrh, but there was also pain and blood and tears. Christmas is about Herod the Great ordering a genocide. It is young mothers from Bethlehem to Jerusalem clinging to their baby boys as the soldiers storm in to their homes with knives in their hands. Christmas is fathers feeling helpless with no way to stop the executive order to have their sons murdered. Christmas is Mary and Joseph fleeing their home as refugees to escape from Bethlehem to Egypt, not knowing if they would ever be able to return.

There was a war with Christmas from the beginning and it began long ago. The poet-prophet Isaiah said:

For a child is born to us, a son is given to us. The government will rest on his shoulders. And he will be called: Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. His government and its peace will never end. He will rule with fairness and justice from the throne of his ancestor David for all eternity. The passionate commitment of the Lord of Heaven’s Armies will make this happen! (Isaiah 9:6-7)

In a strange way it’s exactly this ongoing war with Christmas that becomes our hope.

Christmas is the story of God as the Coming One who disorders the world as we know it for the sake of an alternative world in line with the realities of the coming future of God. Jesus, as Israel’s Messiah, proclaimed the coming Kingdom of God as good news and demonstrated the nature of that reign by proclaiming the forgiveness of sins, healing the sick, casting out demons, eating with tax collectors and sinners, and inviting all hearers to leave the realities of the old way of doing things behind to serve the coming future of God. God has come and is coming, offering us the hope of a world the principalities and powers of the age are incapable of giving us—a restored world where self-giving love, abiding peace and unending joy flow from the fullness of God’s presence. It is a world that through His in-breaking kingdom, has come into the present through the Resurrected Lord, yet is a world that will fully come in His Return in the consummation of His kingdom—the final Advent. This is the advent story.

In the meantime, you and I can know that as the way with Christmas carries on and each one of us are playing our part, God still enters into the darkness and meets us in our mess. Advent reminds us that we must wait.

We wait in hope, peace, joy and love. In a world filled with divisive politics, the suffering of places like Libya, the violence of poverty despite the abundance of wealth, and the sheer weight of brokenness that arises from the death-dealing grip of the pursuit of power, we need Advent in order to remember. We need to remember to trust that God is at work in the world. We need to remember that through the coming of the long expected King Jesus God’s people have been invited to join him in his work as watchful, waiting and discerning witnesses to the world that is and is to come.

~ Fred

(Final post will come Friday)

In Bethlehem the Christmas we all know and love is happening. It involves a baby, a manger, Joseph, Mary, angels, a bright and shining star and lowly shepherds. This is the Christmas we celebrate in school plays and the one we think about as we decorate the tree and hang our stockings on the chimney with care. It’s the sights and sounds of this Christmas that feels so good as we walk through Busch Garden’s Christmas in lights or stroll about Colonial Williamsburg the night of Grand Illumination.

We love Christmas. The reality, what we love most about Christmas is only a part of the story. Matthew and Luke do not want to us to miss the larger story of Christmas.

The gospel writers Matthew and Luke tell us that Christmas includes a crazy king who rules over Jerusalem. He has privilege with Rome, position in Jerusalem, and power over the Jews. He goes by the name of Herod the Great. Like all people of privilege, position and power, his most pressing concern is keeping it. Herod the Great wants nothing less than to remain great.

Christmas is also about a young unmarried peasant girl named Mary who receives a word from a heavenly messenger that she would give birth to the long awaited King of Israel promised by the prophets. It’s a song she sings in contemplation and celebration, in protest and prophecy; we call it Mary’s Magnificat. It’s the longest set of words spoken by a woman in the New Testament. It’s a revolutionary song so politically charged that centuries later it would be banned in various forms by different governments, three just within the past century.

Around 1857, the British in India, under the East India Company, banned the Magnificat from being sung in monasteries. Getting the natives stirred up with ideas of the hungry being fed, the poor lifted up and the rich and powerful overthrown and sent away empty might not go well for the British. It is also written that in the 1980s, Guatemala’s government discovered Mary’s words about God’s preferential love for the poor to be dangerous and revolutionary. The song could inspire Guatemala’s impoverished people. Additionally, Argentina’s militia outlawed any public display of Mary’s song when after the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, whose children all disappeared during the “Dirty War” (1976-1983), placed the Magnificat’s words on posters throughout the plaza of the Capitol. It goes like this:

“Oh, how my soul praises the Lord. How my spirit rejoices in God my Savior! For he took notice of his lowly servant girl, and from now on all generations will call me blessed. For the Mighty One is holy, and he has done great things for me. He shows mercy from generation to generation to all who fear him. His mighty arm has done tremendous things! He has scattered the proud and haughty ones. He has brought down princes from their thrones and exalted the humble. He has filled the hungry with good things and sent the rich away with empty hands. He has helped his servant Israel and remembered to be merciful. For he made this promise to our ancestors, to Abraham and his children forever.”(Luke 1:46-55)

The German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer recognized the revolutionary nature of Mary’s song. Before being executed by the Nazis, Bonhoeffer spoke these words in a sermon during Advent in 1933:

“The song of Mary is the oldest Advent hymn. It is at once the most passionate, the wildest, one might even say the most revolutionary Advent hymn ever sung. This is not the gentle, tender, dreamy Mary whom we sometimes see in paint- ings; this is the passionate, surrendered, proud, enthusiastic Mary who speaks out here….. This song…..is a hard, strong, inexorable song about collapsing thrones and humbled lords of this world, about the power of God and the powerlessness of humankind. These are the tones of the women prophets of the Old Testament that now come to life in Mary’s mouth”

Dr. Scot McKnight has suggested that Mary’sMagnificat was to oppressed Jews what “We Shall Overcome” was for oppressed black men and women during the Civil Rights.

The Magnificat is a song about how God will bring down all earthly kingdoms, from sea to shining sea and from Princes to Presidents. Only one kingdom will stand forever. Mary sings about how God will scatter the prideful and powerful and side with the poor, filling them with good things. Her Magnificat is not a nursery rhyme for a baby but a war cry for a Savior-King. It was a prophetic song about what God will do in the Advent of Jesus, as if He had already done them in the past. God’s love, justice and righteousness is working itself out before our very eyes because the King has come and is coming again.

Join Mary in her song and wait in hope. The King has come and is coming again.